First-time voters at Boise State both enthused, apathetic to participate in presidential election process

By Eric Fink

CREATED Oct. 8, 2012

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  • Eric Fink spent some time talking to these first-timers and has the story. Video by IdahoOnYourSide.com

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With a little more than a month left until the 2012 Presidential Election, competition to swing those still undecided voters gets more and more heated.  But, votes from another group of citizens are just as important – first-time voters.

Thousands of first-timers walk our nation’s colleges and universities every day.

Some of those college students admit they’re pumped to walk into the voting booth on November 6.

“First of all to have a voice,” Shelbi Ferdinand, a BSU freshman, said, “to have independence and to make your own decision, it’s driven me to learn about what’s going on.”

21-year-old junior, Jared Curl, knows he has the right to vote he’s just unsure he can cast an informed ballot. 

“I feel that I should be making a decision for the right thing,” Curl said. “Right now, I don’t know what the right thing is and so I’m leaving it up to the people who believe they do have an actual right to make that decision because I don’t feel like I do.”

Boise State senior Aaron Franklin is excited to cast a vote for president. Franklin missed the 2008 election, not turning 18 until December of that year.  In 2012, Franklin’s absentee ballot means everything.

“I’m a Colorado resident,” Franklin said. “It’s obviously one of the key states this year, with the debate there, a swing state, one vote can make a huge difference.”

Franklin recalled a recent presidential election where every vote mattered.

“ I remember back in 2000, in Florida, with George Bush, one vote makes a huge difference.  If a ton of us are apathetic about it then it could be really close and if all those people had voted it could have gone the other way, it can really change things.”